


Sweet Reunions and Hasty Goodbyes

by NutheadGee



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: A little angst, Cuddles, Cuddling and Giggling, Fluff, Gabe is still a great cook, Humour, I WEEP, Jack can't handle spice LMFAO, M/M, Old Men Being Badass, Old Men In Love, Secret Santa, They love each other so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 00:47:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13155594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NutheadGee/pseuds/NutheadGee
Summary: Reaper and Soldier: 76 never expect to meet one cold night in the grim and scary streets of King's Row, but the Fates are as unpredictable as usual, and once they reunite, they can't help but remove the masks, remove their personas and once again become Gabriel and Jack, two men once so deeply in love they never thought they would leave each other's side, until, well, the Fates and unpredictability and all.Once again the remember who they were, remember what it's like to feel, and the love they once shared burns just as brightly, and though they have just one night to share it, who are they to say no? After all, with every hasty goodbye there's always a sweet reunion.Always.





	Sweet Reunions and Hasty Goodbyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Apetunias](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apetunias/gifts).



> The love they share is true relationship goals. FOr the secret Santa. I hope everyone enjoys it.

Jack was surely way too old for this. He wasn’t surprised that he could  _ still  _ keep up with these kids, and his reactions were still as fast, his strength never having failed him, and his ability to bark orders and have that authority never left him, but he was honestly tired of this running around after bureaucratic thugs in cars who thought they could get away from him.

Especially if said bureaucratic thugs had the answers he sought so desperately.

“Soldier 76, we’re all accounted for, should we wait for you?” A voice said in his comms, slightly panicked. Jack narrowed his eyes behind his visor.

“Has any of you come into contact with any of the targets?” He didn’t mean to sound that, well, gruff, but honestly if these kids thought they brought him all the way out here just to do laps around London, they had another thing coming.

The silence that accompanied his questions answered it much more eloquently than any words ever could.

“Leave,” he snapped, irritated. “I’ll find my way back.”

There was a slight hesitation on the other end of the comms. “But sir, we hav -”

“Did I fucking stutter, agent?! I said  _ leave.  _ If anyone has an issue with that order tell them to address it with me directly,” he growled, getting a terrifying affirmative from the other end before switching it off. He was tempted to crush the damned thing under his heel, but he knew he would need it when he was done getting what he needed from those assholes.

Now there was a new problem: finding aforementioned assholes. The streets of King’s Row were suddenly quiet again, and Jack really didn’t like it when King’s Row was quiet. Clutching his pulse pistol harder and closer to him, he sprinted around to a blind spot Ana once showed him and then hoped from there he could see something.

It took Jack a split second to process what his instinct was telling him: the place he was at was about to explode, and the second he jumped off the ledge, rolled onto the ground and managed to duck behind a wall, the entire wall to his left exploded into a mess of brick, cement and debris. A particularly sharp shard of glass was where his shoulder was moments ago, and he winced at the thought of how much pain and blood loss he’s have to contend with had he not moved the time he did. He gulped, again thanking Overwatch for pumping all that shit into him back in the day. He highly doubted he’d be in one piece had he not been a super soldier.

He heard a loud curse, and some low grumbling. It was pretty obvious whoever that had wanted him blown into smithereens knew that he was there, and it was also pretty obvious that they were quite mad they didn’t find pieces of him flying around the place, so they had failed in their mission. Anger was expected of them, but the screams of sheer agony - and was that  _ urine  _ he was smelling?! - was a little bit unexpected.

Kings Row was generally very eerie, but when he saw a random black mist, and the distinctive pop of a very familiar bullet from a very familiar shotgun go through someone’s skull, he couldn’t help but feel some trepidation at the pit of his stomach. When he saw a black and grey shotgun shell slowly toll towards him, leaving a thin trail of blood behind it, that trepidation was substantiated.

Well, fuck.

“Where the  _ fuck  _ is he?” he heard a growl, a very familiar growl, low, rough, and supremely  _ pissed.  _

“H-He’s at the Hilton. Th-They all -” the poor man hiccuped here. “They are all there. All of them! All of th - “

Another pop, and silence. He heard the lifeless thump of a dead body fall to the ground.

“Get out of there, Morrison. You’re too old to be folding yourself behind ledges. You’ll get stiff and someone is gonna have to come out and stretch your dumbass.”

Jack took a deep breath. If he was going to die here then so be it. He slowly stood up, face to face with the Reaper. His former colleague. His former Commander of Blackwatch.

His former  _ lover.  _

He had never changed, it seemed, except for his get up. Matte boots, perfectly polished, with his pants, mostly likely linen, and those thighs that could crush a fully grown adult, light but strong armour on his chest, the skull mask and the large leather jacket, hooded. The gloves with metal spikes and gauntlets on those long fingers of his. 

Where did he get so many belts? Granted some of them had his cartridges on them, but even if it was for the aesthetic...then again, Gabriel was always extra if anything. 

A certain warmth bloomed at the pit of his stomach.

He dropped his gaze towards his arms. “Why are your arms so ashy grey?” He murmured, not quite expecting an answer.

Ga - Reaper shrugged. “Sunlight exposure. I can assure you the rest of me is not the same, but because of my...condition, this is a side effect.”

Jack said nothing, biting his tongue as he was wracked with guilt. He was part of the reason Gabe was like this, and it always killed him inside because he was told. He should have listened, but he didn’t, and as a result they were reduced to this: a vigilante and a mercenary. How life comes at you fast.

Gabriel was, quite frankly, kind of amused at seeing Jack for the second time since the explosion. The first time wasn’t in the greatest of circumstances, and he was pretty upset that he had to subject Ana to that as well, but he was right to some extent. All three of them knew it, but at the time emotions were running a tad bit too high to be civilised about it, not to mention Talon hadn’t quite fixed him up yet. Now he felt a little more stable, and honestly speaking both of them could benefit from this meeting.

His usual get up - which, as far as he was concerned was more ridiculous than anything for a vigilante - was an absolute mess, though his presence had caused United Kingdom tax payers a good dent in their exchequer.

His boots, normally a polished dull matte (very much like his, now that he thought about it) had a few scratches on them, with his dark grey khakis having some scruffs too, but nothing too serious. His handgun and the leather belt holding it to his hip seemed fine, and his leather jacket was filthy, together with his gloves. It looked doubly ridiculous with all the bright red, bright blue and white. He looked like he’d been rolling on the sidewalk. His face and his hair were pretty filthy too, though that was more from the dust and the debris in the air after the explosion more than anything. His mask and visor both seemed to be fine, and so did his armour and his undershirt.

He just looked a little rough around the edges, but he doubted he had really injured anything. He smirked, taking his mask off, hanging it onto his hip, followed by his shotguns, before he walked over to Jack, who was frozen on the spot. It didn't take long for him to figure out how to unfasten the visor and the mask, and he carefully took them off, tilting his head slightly to the side and he smiled crookedly at his former lover.

Jackie never changed, and it was truly endearing.

“Gabe,” Jack whispered, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape, almost as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He had barely changed, other than the grey hair and receding hairline. The stubble was the same, the scars across his face, the bright blue eyes that never dimed even in age. He had barely wrinkled too, with just the folds at the edges of his eyes.

“The one and only,” Gabriel whispered back, running the back of his knuckles over Jack’s cheek, who closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. “Come on. I have a safe house in the area. You need a wash and some rest. We can deal with everything else tomorrow.”

Jack was definitely down with that.

…

The good thing with King’s Row is that normally people here had a healthy fear of each other, particularly when they saw people that were walking around with weapons that they looked like they knew how to use, so for the most part no one really bothered Gabriel and Jack as they walked towards the safe house. Despite that, Jack couldn’t stop gawking in awe at Gabe as he walked behind him, and more than once his gaze had dropped to his bum, though covered with his cloak he could still imagine it looked as glorious as before, if his thighs were anything to go by.

The man had barely changed.  _ Barely.  _ In fact he almost looked exactly as before, with the exception of the streaks of grey on his goatee, the most miniscule of wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and his temples and the slight, black mist rising from the surface of his skin. He was just as stunningly handsome as all those years ago. He knew them being super soldiers would significantly slow down the aging process but Gabe could easily say he was even a decade younger than he actually was and anyone would believe him. God his crooked smile had Jack feeling a type of way, and though he knew at the back of his mind he was still deeply in love with Gabriel, it never really hit him until now. Now he was going to be alone with him, in a safe house for at least twenty four hours. He honestly had no idea how he was going to survive.

“We’re here,” Gabriel said, removing some keys and opening the door. Jack had a look at it, and from the outside it looked pretty normal, pretty nice.

“Nice place. Does Talon know?” The inside also looked pretty normal, well furnished. It actually looked like it was lived in. There were not traces of dust, all the stuff looked used. Damn...it was actually ridiculously nice. Jack couldn’t get over it.

Gabriel threw the keys over the island carelessly, shrugging off his robes, gauntlets, shotguns and mask. “No. They don’t have to know anything I do with the money I get from doing my mercenary work.” He turned around to glance at him. Jesus Christ he was  _ filthy.  _ “Go take a shower. I’ll get you something to wear as I do your laundry. When you’re done you can go clean your rifle in the garage after you eat. Then you can tell me about Ana.”

Jack said nothing, subconsciously reaching for his face to get his visor off, before realising that it was already hanging on his waist. He walked to the shower, quietly thanking Gabriel for the towel and the spare clothes, then blushing furiously when Gabriel smiled warmly at him, before mentally berating himself for behaving like a teenager.

Gabriel had a lot to think about as Jack was in the shower, like how stressed he was trying to atone for his sins, and how the man honestly needed to rest, and how absolutely happy he was to finally see him after a long time. He was just as adorable as before, being absolutely unable to hide his devotion and admiration for him, and Gabriel had to admit, he missed how Jack reminded him that he was human and not just a weapon for humanity. He had missed that feeling, the feeling of someone appreciating you for you, and he was glad that he was able to feel that again, despite everything that had happened to make him what he had become.

Jack came out when he was still cooking, quietly sitting down on the island, glasses on his nose as he went through a datapad. He looked much better, much more clean and much more at ease. He actually looked like Jack in a fitting white t shirt and shorts, more than his vigilante identity. He served him his dinner and contemplated going to shower as he ate, but changed his mind the last second and decided they should eat together, just like old times.

Though, of course more than once they had done more than eat in the old days. Gabriel closed his eyes, clenching his teeth to try and push the wave of memories and emotions back down. He nonetheless served them both and took Jack’s food to him, sliding down next to him and they sat in comfortably silence and ate. He laid it low on the spices this time. He doubted Jack’s Indiana ass had grown accustomed to them with age. He snorted, food in his mouth, prompting Jack to look at him.

“You okay?” Jack asked after he swallowed, actually looking concerned.

“Peachy,” Gabriel responded, shoving another mouthful of food in his mouth.

“Go shower. I’ll clean this up,” Jack told him when they were both done. Gabriel thanked him, grateful, as he prepared to go take a shower. A massive storm from out of nowhere had begun when he was showering, and he chalked it up to unpredictable London weather. He had just finished and was going to get Jack to show him where he would be sleeping when the lights went out. Fucking great. The storm must have damaged something  which had caused the blackout, and knowing King’s Row, there would probably be no communication on what is happening until tomorrow. Nonetheless, he changed and went back out into the sitting room, to find him having moved the couch to the window, where the moonlight was streaming in. He looked almost ethereal. Gabriel couldn’t help but smile as he moved closer to him.

“Get up a moment, Jackie,” he said quietly, watching as Jack slowly got up from the sofa, silently and pleasantly surprised when it turned into a sofa bed, complete with two  pillows and what looked like very fluffy and comfortable blankets. Gabriel sat back  down on the now bed, patting his side gently and Jack joined him. For a moment they just sat down and looked out, but Jack was looking at more than out.

“I can see you checking me out, Jack, though, I’ll admit you’re being a lot more subtle this time,” he said, chuckling. Jack immediately glanced away, his face turning crimson. “Despite being a vigilante and always on the run you have really taken care of yourself. I’m impressed. You’re still looking really good despite your age,” he added looking him up and down and causing him to blush even harder. Gabriel chuckled again, Jack was so cute when he was blushing so hard he was lost for words.

“Shut up,” Jack mumbled, fiddling with his fingers. “And thank you.” Wanting to talk about something else that wasn’t how he was still in love with this man despite everything and after all these years, he asked how this place is immaculate despite the fact that Gabriel never comes here too often.

“Jesse and Genji mostly stay here when they travel. Jesse moreso because he’s been in the UK and Western Europe generally a lot.”

It was silent again for a moment.

“I love you.”

Gabriel literally felt his brain break. For a moment all he did was stare outside at the dimly lit grassy garden. He felt like his mind was disintegrating, a tight feeling in his chest and a not uncomfortable clenching of his stomach. Those three words were said so softly, so quietly, but Gabriel had known Jack long enough, had been his lover for the better part of two and a half decades to hear the truth and conviction behind those words.

He loved him. He  _ loved  _ him, and he meant it. Jack still loved Gabriel, and for the first time in years Gabriel was honestly lost for words.

He risked a glance at Jack, and his heart, or what was left of it, nearly shattered. Jack was staring down at his hands, a slight smile on his face, softened with emotion. Gabriel knew that look very well, for it was the same look he spotted just under three decades ago when he first confessed his love for Jack: a little bit of hope that his feelings would be reciprocated, but also knowing - and expecting - the possibility of rejection.

“I never stopped loving you, even after, well, everything. No matter what happens I’ll always love you, Gabe. Even after death. I’ll never stop loving you.”

He knew Jack was talking to him, telling him these words in real time, but it felt like he was hearing them in his head, like it was all a dream and he was imagining them.

Gabriel never hesitated. He immediately turned to Jack, his thumb and finger on his chin, lifting his face up, and when he saw those bright, blue eyes widen he felt his heart warm before he leaned in for a kiss, soft and sweet. 

Jack at first stiffened, not knowing how to respond. Gabriel had closed his eyes, kissing him gently, his thumb lightly rubbing his stubble, gently moving his lips over his mouth. He breathed out through his nose, opting to relax, gently placing his hand over his thigh and kissed him back, just as soft and as sweet. He felt Gabriel smile against his mouth, and he had forgotten the lovely feel of Gabriel goatee against him, and when Gabriel gently pulled off, Jack leaned in further, trying to extend it.

“No, don - “

“I love you.”

Jack’s words died in his mouth, and he was happy for once that his throat went dry because now he could stop that embarrassing sound stuck in there from being vocalised. He just stared at Gabriel. Mouth slightly open, joy pounding in his heart and threatening to overflow his whole body with its warmth.

Gabriel loved him. He truly loved him, despite the quiet nature he uttered those three words. He just sat there, his mind going insane trying to process what Gabriel had said. 

“I think this is the part where you let me embrace you.” Even through the roughness of his voice Jack could hear it. The  _ affection.  _ This wasn’t Reaper anymore, this was Gabe. Jack never thought he’s ever say that the infamous Talon Mercenary Reaper could be affectionate but here he was. What a time to be alive.

Gabriel opened his arms wide, and Jack fell in them, giggling like a pre teen. He literally fell on him, prompting both of them to fall backwards on the couch, Jack on top of Gabriel and they both couldn’t stop laughing, their bodies tangled all over each other, with Jacking making the extra effort to wrap his limbs all over his love, his ear on his chest, listening to his laughter rumble from deep within. They had both missed this, and none of them wanted to let go.

“Pick up the blanket for me, please,  _ cariño.  _ It’s gonna get a little cooler later and I honestly don’t want this moment to be ruined when we’re both trembling our skins off.” Jack loved the vibrations against his ear when Gabriel spoke.

“Isn’t that literal for you though?”

“It is, yes.”

Jack picked up the blanket, handing it to Gabriel, who proceeded to cover them both, then did his part in tangling their limbs together for a nice cuddle.

“Sweetheart, I’m sorry for ruining this moment but how the fuck are we gonna go the loo in the middle of the night?” Jack asked suddenly, his head popping up as if he’s just gotten an epiphany.

“Go to sleep Jackie. God you’re such an idiot.”

Giggling, Jack went back to sleep.

…

Gabriel woke up, warm with a pair of strong arms around him and a pair of strong legs straddling him. He blinked blearily, staring around his apartment before he wrinkled his nose, feeling it being tickled by blonde hair. He glanced down and smiled softly when he saw Jack on his chest, drooling on his sleeping shirt. He looked so calm and so serene, he almost didn’t want to wake him up, but he had to.

“Wake up Jackie,” he said softly, shaking him gently on the shoulder. Jack grunted, blinking multiple times before staring at Gabriel squinting his eyes as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“Gabe?” he asked, He raised his hand, gently touching his cheek. “My darling?”

“Wakey wakey,  _ hermoso.  _ There’s a lot we need to catch up on.”

Jack scrambled up, rubbing his eyes as Gabriel sat up next to him. Their legs were still tangled together, and Gabriel spread the blanket at them then grabbed his datapad. He pulled up the images of the target both of them were after, a former United Nations big man who had been instrumental in the fall of Overwatch and the one of the reasons their lives were currently as messed up as they were. That conversation led to their next targets, then to Ana.

“She’s doing fine. She misses you,” Jack said, looking at Gabriel who was looking down at his hands. He was silent. What was he going to say? He knew she never hated him, and he harboured no ill feelings towards her either. It was just that life apparently threw a completely different curveball at them and now here they were.

“I’ll come visit sometime, or maybe we can meet up somewhere,” Gabriel said, something slightly melancholic in his voice. He really missed her too. He missed a lot of people. He glanced at his other messages. His chopper would be here in a couple of hours. He needed to get going.

Jack observed Gabriel quietly get off the couch and off the bathroom. It seemed like Talon would be coming from him soon. He sighed, knowing it was time for him to call for Overwatch as well. He knew his next target. And he was going to make it a mission to get to him and destroy him. Maybe he should return the favour from last night and make breakfast. They both had a long day ahead of them.

…

“What happened last night,  _ monsieur?  _ Why didn’t you call for us to come and get you earlier?”

Reaper glanced at Widowmaker, a snarl on his lips conveniently hidden by his mask. He contemplated snapping at her, but he doubted it would work. She felt almost no emotion anyway, so any efforts at intimidation would be a waste as far as he was concerned.

“There was a lot more to be done than I anticipated. I needed some down time,” he responded instead, his growl a lot more menacing than usual. She didn’t get the hint, or maybe she did but didn’t care. Probably the latter.

“A rare miscalculation. You could have called for help.”

“I could have. I didn’t. I took care of everything. Your point?”

“There’s a lot of explaining you’ll have to do to Akande.”

“I’m trembling in my boots,” he said dryly, the sarcasm so blatant their pilot was afraid of an altercation. Widowmaker got the point. She kept quiet for the rest of the journey. Reaper wasn’t complaining. He had good memories to relive.

Soon, he would meet his lover again.

…

“Are you alright, sir?”

Jack glanced at his pilot, happy that she couldn’t see his reaction past his visor.

“Peachy,” he said, his heart growing with joy and wryly amused at the shocked expression on her face, quite not expecting him to use that expression. Soon, they would meet again.

Goodbyes truly were bittersweet.


End file.
